GCHA HeatSuite Phoenix 2024 pilot: personal heat exposure, physiological and perceptual responses in a group of older adults

Extreme heat poses increasing health risks in cities, yet individual
exposure and vulnerability vary substantially due to differences in
behavior, housing, and adaptive capacity. Understanding these
differences requires observational data collected at the individual and
household levels.

This repository contains processed data on personal heat exposure,
physiological responses, and perceptual experiences collected from **39
free-living older adults in the Phoenix metropolitan area (Arizona,
United States)** during the record-breaking summer of 2024
(June--October). Data was collected as part of the **National Science
Foundation Global Center for Heat Adaptation (GCHA)** using the
**HeatSuite platform**, which integrates wearable physiological
monitoring, ecological momentary assessments, and environmental sensing.
In addition, personal- and household-level environmental conditions were
measured using **Kestrel DROP D2 sensors** deployed on-body and inside
participants' homes. Data are provided at original and multiple temporal
resolutions (e.g., minute-level, 10-min, hourly, and daily aggregates)
to support different analytical approaches as needed.

Detailed information on study design, sensor placement, sampling
protocols, and preprocessing procedures is available in the associated
publications and their supplementary materials. The study protocol was
approved by the **Arizona State University Institutional Review Board
(STUDY00019657),** and all data included in this repository are
de-identified.

The processed datasets included here are sufficient to reproduce the
analyses and figures presented in the associated manuscript:

Guzman-Echavarria, G., et al. (2026). Who Can Avoid the Heat?
Inter-Individual Differences in 24-h Heat Exposure Reveal Disparities in
Heat Adaptation and Stress. *AGU GeoHealth*. \[Submitted\].

Future repository versions will include perceptual and physiological
outcomes associated with a forthcoming publication, as well as selected
raw data files, subject to data governance and participant privacy
considerations.

**HeatSuite platform description:**
Ravanelli, N., Lefebvre, K., Mornas, A., et al. (2025). Evaluating
compliance with HeatSuite for monitoring in situ physiological and
perceptual responses and personal environmental exposure. *npj Digital
Medicine*, 8, 223. <https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-025-01608-z>

OSF GCHA registration: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/MU73Z